1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to a data processing system and in particular to an apparatus and computer program product for processor registers. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and computer usable program code for using instruction trace registers to identify instructions responsible for updated values in the processor registers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A processor register is memory in a processor that holds instruction operands or stores the result of an instruction. Data is moved from main memory into registers for utilization, manipulation, and updating of the data during program execution. When a computer program executes, the instructions in the program operate directly on the register values. As the instructions execute, the values in the registers are updated by the executing instructions. For example, if a given instruction adds a value in register 2 to a value in register 3 and places that, new value in register 10.
Using currently available solutions, it can be extremely difficult or impossible to determine which instruction in a program code was responsible for the current register value when examining a register dump. Thus, when a value in a processor register is updated during program execution, users frequently cannot accurately or reliably determine which instruction in the program code was responsible for changing the register value at a latter point in time.